TVA cuts 400 jobs, spending on Ala. nuclear plant

The Tennessee Valley Authority is cutting 530 jobs and trimming millions of dollars in spending on a project to complete an unfinished nuclear plant in Alabama.

A senior vice president, Mike Skaggs, said Wednesday that the utility's budget for the Bellefonte Nuclear Power Station will fall from $182 million to $66 million. That's a reduction of nearly 64 percent.

A total of 530 TVA employees and contractors assigned to the project will lose their jobs. Some of the TVA employees may be reassigned to other roles within the utility.

TVA officials originally projected the project would be complete in roughly 2020.

It secured a federal license to build two reactors in 1974, then abandoned the project as the demand for electricity dwindled and industry building costs soared.